Luminous Lights 401 Pro Front Light Review
erdict
"Not cheap, but well made with genuine all night capability"
Bikeradar Review Manufacturers description User reviews Sun 11 Dec 2011, 12:00 pm GMTBy Justin Loretz, What Mountain Bike Shopping partnersFind this product at:
WinstanleyChain Reaction CyclesWiggleFor the best service and best prices around
When it comes to riding off road at night, there’s no such thing as too much light, just as well really because the 1400 lumens (350Lux at 5m) pumped out by the 401 Pro Model we’ve been testing through the summer lights up the trail well enough for near day time attack speeds. Luminous Lights are a UK lighting company making bike lights for those who are committed to riding as much at night as they do in the day. The four model range of Luminous lights are all around the £300 mark and that fact alone places them at the ‘considered purchase’ end of the market.
The 116g head unit of the 401 makes it the baby of the (external battery) bunch with the 501 (1700 lumens) and 701 (2000 lumens) beating it on paper for power and dimension. The 401 can be used for running and caving, however we mounted it to the bar of our bike and were totally happy with all aspects of its on-trail performance. On maximum power you’ll get a genuine 2-hour 45 min run, with 3 hours 45 min on the 1000 lumen middle setting. We ran a whole night riding Mountain Mayhem 24-hour solo on the 400 lumen low setting. We switched off approaching six hours.
The six-hour charge time is a wait, and while the connectors are excellent and weatherproof - we left it out and connected in a week’s worth of rain (just to see) - we would have liked a 90-degree connector for the main cable out the back of the head unit. The battery is 375g, light enough to please weight weenies, but we’d have liked a longer Velcro strap to help with fitting on frames with girthy tubes and a rubberised coating or patch on the nylon pouch the battery sits in to help it grip t